Our Crazy Adventures in autismland!

Mixing art appreciation with art concepts

2012-01-24T09:37:00.001-05:00

My kids have two entirely different concepts of art.

Logan is content to just do art appreciation. He will look at all the paintings I want him to as long as I don't ask him to draw. Of course, this is partly because of his autism. His brain is wired different . It doesn't help that he is most definitely left brained. Math is easy for him. Art , not so much.

Yes, that is all art supplies!

Madison would draw the day away. She is always writing notes and drawing pictures. She likes art so much that Santa brought her massive amounts of art supplies for Christmas along with a mobile easel. She was beyond ecstatic. She gets very disappointed when we do artist study where there is no actual drawing or crafting involved.

Madison's recreation of Caspar David Friedrich sunset

To keep both of them happy, I have started doing a mixture of art appreciation or artist study along with art concepts. Pretty basic stuff. These activities have to be short (less than 15 minutes) but have enough meat to make it fun. Nothing that would completely frustrate Logan but enough to satisfy Madison. At the end of the term, they have to recreate their favorite painting. Madison loves that part of the term.

There are several things you could do for a quick and easy activity. You can make color wheels.

Of course , you could blend colors using your color wheel.

Dover has a ton of coloring books for the great artists. They are phenomenally done. We color a page from our artist using different mediums. Watercolor, pastels, paint, markers. etc. We learn what these mediums do and how they react to different things you do. All while learning about the artist as well.

Family Tree Tiles at Picassoz Cup

I also like to sign up for local art classes at a nearby pottery studio. This affords us the opportunity to learn about different mediums cheaply but in a fun way. If you have friends join you , it's even better.

When Social Stories Go Wrong

2012-01-16T09:23:00.001-05:00

For his 13th birthday, Logan finally received his own personal cell phone. We really had to talk up how awesome this was as he was oblivious to why he would want one. It helped that his little sister thought this was the coolest gift on the face of the planet.

It would have been a perfect gift for Madison to tell the truth. Unfortunately for her, Logan was the one who needed it. He was going off more on his own with our church youth group. It made me feel better that if he needed me, he could call on his own. While it was not his favorite gift, we managed to make it cool thanks to help from several youth at church giving him his number.

It became apparent really fast that we had a problem though. A serious problem that needed a plan of action asap. When Logan used his phone, he used the scenario that he had learned in social skills group years ago. He went through the steps like clockwork. The problem came when someone deviated from the scenario. Logan looked like a deer caught in the headlights. He simply didn't know what to do with himself. Since he didn't know what to do, he shut down. As in , said nothing. Not a word. He waited for the person to answer how he was taught in the social story. It was horrid.

I should have seen this coming. We had encountered this before with introductions. We practiced how to introduce yourself and what not. This was all well and good until the other person decided to answer differently . Logan was much younger then so he would have a meltdown because he didn't know what else to do. I remember working on that for what seemed like forever. Finally, after practicing it for what seemed like years with many silly answers, he became comfortable

This is one of those times when I say thank God for grandparents. I enlisted both sets of grandparents to call or be called by Logan. This worked well for us since they didn't know the social story. Since they didn't know how Logan was expecting them to answer, they always answered differently. I must admit that I didn't tell them why at first other than Logan needed the practice. They heard a lot of me in the background telling him how to answer. Micheal and I randomly called him for no reason and with no purpose. Eventually, he got better at it and was able to function relatively properly on the phone. A year later, he is a walking, talking, texting machine. He has the phone down pat now.

I wouldn't do social stories again for Logan. Maybe to introduce a new situation but definitely not in a rigid format as in I say this then you say that. It's not worth in in my opinion. We are teaching them to function in a fluid typical environment. We are setting them up for failure when the response in not what they practiced. Keep that in mind before you submit you and your child to that. Believe me. The end result is not pretty.

Weekly Wrap Up: Week 1 which means that high school has begun!

2012-01-13T23:58:00.004-05:00

Well, I survived week 1 of high school. I can't even believe that I wrote that! Yes, I have a high schooler. You know what? I really don't know what's scarier. The fact that my precious baby boy is beginning high school or the fact that I am going to be the one teaching him high school subjects. Yikes!

Once I talked myself off the ledge, which means that I drank more coffee than I care to admit, we began the week. I made out the assignment sheet and off we went. Wish me luck!

The week didn't go as well as planned. I am still struggling with getting all the together work done . Jimmie over at Jimmie's Collage did give me some advice that I am going to implement in an effort to change that. Both children are doing their independent work fairly well. I write it out on a daily schedule for Madison but Logan gets the weekly work and makes his own schedule. I am going to work with both of them this term on really taking ownership of their education.

I'll post our curriculum choices for Term 1 next week. I need to work out our schedules too. We have a ton of extra curricular activities so we will need a workable schedule to get through this term for sure! Oh and I have to get first day of school pictures as well. Guess they'll be second week of school pictures! Next week I promise not to be a slacker and have pics for my post next Friday!

Being Jesus

2012-01-08T10:42:00.001-05:00

I recently got a part time job as a substitute crossing guard. It's only a little more than 2 hours a day . A hour and a half in the morning when everyone in the house is still asleep and 45 minutes in the afternoon. The children take a break or do their chores while I'm gone. It's decent money that we are putting toward our old debt in our goal to become debt free.

Now that you know why I was standing on the corner this past Tuesday, I must share a story. It was bitterly cold that day. As in 30 something degrees with a terrible wind that made it about 15. I live in Florida for a reason. To be warm all year round. Tuesday was the day to stay inside and never leave the house. Yet, here I was at 7 in the morning helping children cross the street.

A group of brothers approached my corner. As we waited for the light to change to red, I noticed that the oldest boy didn't have gloves on. The light turned red so I entered the street to let them cross. We had this conversation which lasted about 3 seconds as he walked past me in the road.

Me: Where are your gloves? Your hands must be cold.
Him: I don't have any. I'll be alright.

At that point, I felt the Spirit lead me to give him my gloves. BUT, it was really cold. It was the beginning of my shift. I would be incredibly uncomfortable for at least an hour . At that moment, I was not obedient to the Spirit. I was not willing to make myself uncomfortable. By the time I was willing to do it more than 20 seconds or more had passed. The boys had been horsing around and chasing each other down the sidewalk. They were clearly too far for me to go after without leaving my post. Not my best moment to say the least.

I thought of that boy all day. I was going to give him my gloves that afternoon. Him and his brothers were nowhere to be seen though. Not the next day either. Come Thursday morning, I was seriously feeling guilty. The devil was having a field day with me at this point. It was still cold as I stood out there . I should mention that I was substituting all week at the same corner. Cold but not as cold as Tuesday.

A little girl approached on her bike. What got my attention was that she kept almost wrecking her bike because she was trying to ride with her jacket sleeves over her hands. You better believe that I took my gloves off immediately and gave them to her. Her little face lit up when I gave them to her. She had them on her hands as soon as she crossed the street. I felt better but still thought of the boy from Tuesday.

That afternoon, I crossed the same little girl to get home. She had the gloves on her little hands. As she passed me, I told her I would see her tomorrow. She yelled back over her shoulder, " See you in the morning Jesus." It took my breath away. I was Jesus to her that morning by giving my gloves. I was humbled beyond measure.

As I sat in Bible study that evening listening to Beth Moore talk about the Holy Spirit, I had a revelation. Maybe the lesson Tuesday wasn't about giving my gloves up to that little boy. Possibly the Spirit was preparing me for Thursday morning when I would need to give my gloves to that little girl. It had bothered me so much that I hadn't seen that little boy again. But that was not the person that needed to be blessed. It was the little girl who needed someone to bless her unconditionally.

We are to always listen to the Spirit. If God calls us to give something, we should give it regardless of our comfort level. I should have given the gloves Tuesday morning when I felt the Spirit lead me to do it. Every now and then, we get a second chance to be Jesus to someone. It's the best feeling in the world.

An addendum to my story above: Friday morning was warmer so I wore a different jacket. As I reached into the pockets, I felt something. Another pair of gloves for me to wear that morning. I almost cried when I pulled them out. And the little boy appeared again that morning. When I asked him where he'd been since Tuesday, he remarked that his mom had been driving him since it was so cold. Those gloves were meant for that little girl the whole time.

A birthday celebration better than I ever dreamed

2011-12-28T00:34:00.000-05:00

It seems that the ongoing theme this month is God has plans that are always way better than anything I could ever think or imagine. Just a mere 6 days after I celebrated my birthday on the 4th with the baptism of my 2 best friends in the whole world, I got to host an event that seemed impossible years ago. Never in a million years when I dreamed of Logan's 14th birthday did I picture this celebration.

I must admit that I pinched myself several times during the evening. As I thought about his birthday 10 years ago, I had to choke back tears. As we celebrated then , he was non verbal, extremely sensitive to noise and light and prone to meltdowns for no apparent reason. He wouldn't eat anything but Kraft mac n cheese. Oh and did I mention that I was just recovering from terrible morning sickness from my 1st trimester of being pregnant with Madison. That night, we had a few family members over. Only a few because that's all Logan could handle. I guarantee you that party didn't last longer than an hour before we were pushing everyone out the door to avert a meltdown. It is not a fond memory.

Fast forward to this year. I let Logan decide what he wanted to do party wise. Teenage boys are so fickle. He suggested that some of his friends come over to play Xbox. We could eat pizza and they could play Halo all afternoon. I thought it was kinda lame to be honest. Logan thought it was the greatest idea ever! Since it was his birthday, I ran with it. We invited a few boys from youth group at church. I got Tombstone pizza from Publix along with lots of Coke and chips. I made gluten free pizza for Logan here at the house.

We ended up with 5 boys total including Logan. Some of the boys brought the same games so they could play each other in different rooms. I have no clue how that works. I just know that there was a ton of laughing and trash talking. The best part was that Logan was laughing and trash talking right along with them. It looked like a typical bunch of teenage boys having fun over video games. Never in a million years did I imagine celebrating his 14th birthday in this manner. I could not have imagined doing a weeks worth of different celebrations culminating with a video game fest with his friends. Heck, a few years ago, I couldn't imagine him with friends. Now he has several close friends that he is active in his youth group with. He even let the youth group sing happy birthday to him. Have you ever had teenagers ~~yell~~ sing to you. It's loud to say the least . Not very sensory friendly for sure.

Don't think for a minute that there weren't some snafus. I don't want to post this rosy picture of everything went hunky dory . But they were manageable snafus. Nothing that brought a meltdown. One thing that I did wrong and knew better was that I let him decide how long to let the boys stay. They came at 1 and left at 8. Logan had a hard time keeping it together from 6 on. I had to stop what I was doing with Madison and scaffold several situations for him. It was important that the evening end well. Since the parents weren't expected until 8, I had to run interference for awhile. Not a whole lot but I definitely needed to keep an eye and ear on things in the evening. I should have known better and have it end at 6. Lesson learned.

I don't know about Logan but I think this was his best birthday ever! He seemed to have loads of fun. It was as typical a celebration as I ever witnessed. God is such an awesome God!

Take time this season to serve others

2011-12-20T19:01:00.000-05:00

This year, like we have done the past 4 years , we rang the bell for the Salvation Army. It started out as something that Logan wanted to do one year for his birthday. We had so much fun doing it that it became a tradition in our family.

Our homeschool group organizes several days for volunteering. It is a two hour shifts so not so long that the kids get bored. Last year, we did it on the coldest days in Florida in centuries. Yes, I said centuries. It was bitterly cold. Ugh!

Madison, especially, loves to ring the bell. She dances around while ringing the bell. Sometimes people will give her change to put in for them. She likes that part. Logan likes to say "God Bless" when a donation is made. It is really sweet to watch both of them.

It's a great way to remind them that there are others less fortunate than themselves. It forces them to take the focus on themselves and their wants. That Jesus is the reason for the season and we should strive to be like Him. I encourage you to try it this season. You may like it and make it a tradition in your family like we did. You never know until you try!

Best Birthday ever!

2011-12-15T11:42:00.000-05:00

My birthday just passed. Yup, I'm a December baby. The funny joke in my family is that I was adamant growing up that I would not have a child born in December. Too close to Christmas so I felt as a child that I usually got shafted when it came to presents. Whether or not I actually did is irrelevant. That was the way I felt. So what happens? My first baby comes on December 11th. Don't let anyone tell you that God doesn't have a sense of humor. He most certainly does.

This year, my birthday was phenomenal. Beyond expectation. I could not have dreamed up a birthday like this in my wildest dreams. God may have a sense of humor but His plans are always so much bigger and better than any of our plans. We have been attending the same church for 4 years without being members. The children were baptized there so they are members. Michael and I were not though. I wanted to join but not without Michael. This was the first church that Michael attended regularly in his life. He would need to be baptized in order to join the church. Michael is not a stand in front of people person. He is more of a behind the scenes guy.

Flashback to last month. We were asked to be on a committee at church and we agreed. Danyel, the person who asked us, came to me one Wednesday evening . She explained that it was discovered that Michael wasn't a member so he couldn't be on the committee. I told her that neither of us were members but I would discuss it with Michael that night when I picked him up from work. Imagine my surprise when he seemed ok not only with joining but with being baptized as well. We made plans to walk down to the front of the church at a Sunday evening service. Leslie was there that night and joined with us. One big happy family. Well, everyone in the church was really surprised that we weren't members. Shocked would be a good word.

Fast forward to my birthday. Not only did my husband get baptized fulfilling a long time prayer request of mine but Leslie did too! Yay!!! So on my birthday, my 2 best friends joined the family of God. Really, all those years of praying and dreaming of the day, I never pictured that it would fall into place so seamlessly and culminate with their baptism ON MY BIRTHDAY! It was like a big birthday hug from God. Kind of like He said

" I see you down there. I know the desires of your heart. My plans are bigger than yours."

BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!! And it is one more thing completed on my 101 things to do list!

The Mom Stocking

2011-12-14T10:12:00.001-05:00

One night when I was laying in bed all alone with nothing on tv to watch, I found this great post over at Overcoming Busy. It happens often, the laying in bed all alone , since Michael works nights. The nothing on tv happens way too often as well especially since we have like a bazillion channels on cable. Anyway, I thought this was such a great idea that I stole it. Although I did give her credit for it. Technically, I didn't steal it then!

I know quite a few single moms that probably don't get much at Christmas. Heck, I am not a single mom and I know the feeling when there is nothing left after the kids and gifts for others have been bought. Now, I am not saying that Christmas is all about the presents. I am not saying that it's a bad Christmas if you don't get any presents. Christmas isn't about the presents. It's about celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. One way that I plan on doing it is to surprise some single moms that I know with stockings full of super cool stuff.

Since I saw this before Christmas last year , I was able to snag some nice stockings at 75% off after Christmas. I also got these tart warmer cubes and Christmas towels at the same sale. That filled up half the stocking for less than $5. Throughout the year, I was able to snag some freebies that I threw in there or picked up stuff that the person would want at the after holiday sales. Some things were gifts to me that I didn't really want so I regifted to the stocking. While couponing , I kept in mind the stockings. They were full in no time.

I managed to keep the stockings under $10. This feat was only accomplished with pre planning. This is a great idea that can easily get out of hand cost wise . I suggest you make a budget for the stocking and stick with it. Then sit back and enjoy the smiles. I know I will especially since there is lots of chocolate involved. Who can resist smiling when there is chocolate? Maybe they'll even share a piece with me!

This is just one way that I am celebrating the birth of Jesus for the 25 days before Christmas. How did you celebrate today?

Learning courage

2011-11-28T16:25:00.033-05:00

It' s no big secret that Logan does hippotherapy every Monday. We go to the awesome Liberty's Gait that offers this service for free to children with special needs. They are phenomenal with Logan. You would never know that Logan is the first child that they have ever had with autism. I can't sing Cindy & Floyd's praises enough. Well, not Floyd's too much. He is a Yankee fan after all.

This riding semester I have been sending my mom with Logan. To be brutally honest, I need the quiet time. I feel guilty about it at times but it is necessary. Logan talks a lot. From the time he gets up to the time he goes to bed. This means that I have to hear from him how the lesson went or depend on my mom to tell me the details. Let's be honest here. This is Nana we are talking about. If she ever said something bad about Logan, I would fall over. I may not be getting the whole story every Monday.

I did learn that they were trying to get Logan to trot on the horse. They had done the extended walk and felt that he was ready to trot. There was only one problem. Logan was scared. Logan is not one to try new things willingly. If he is the least bit frightened, he will over analyze the situation. It's at those times that he can paralyze himself with fear.

We have been spending a great deal of time talking about fear and courage. You can be courageous and fearful at the same time. Courage doesn't mean fear is absent. It means you are afraid but you do it anyway. You face your fear and conquer it. This was one of those times.

We talked about trotting all week. That Monday when he left , we had what can only be described as a mini pep rally. Madison and I chanted and cheered that today was the day Logan was going to trot. At first, he would agree to try. By the time he left, he was smiling and laughing at us.

You know what? He trotted that day. He trotted all over the field. He even controlled the horse himself for the barrels and the red light green light game. He came in the house with the biggest smile anxious to tell me all about the trot. We hooted and hollered. We high fived. I made sure to tell Michael when he called during his lunch break at work within earshot of Logan. We made a really big deal about it. Certainly it was an over exaggerated reaction. It was a reaction that he needed in order to cement the memory in his brain. I say if it works then let's do it. No matter how ridiculous I look chanting about trotting. My neighbors probably think I'm nuts.

Kids earning money

2011-11-08T11:48:00.057-05:00

Recently we instituted a pay scale for earning extra money in our house. The kids are old enough to want to earn and have their own money. Micheal and I were of the same opinion that paying them for their regular chores was out. They do those simply because they live here and are expected to be a contributing member of the family. Just like we do things that we don't get paid for as adults in order to be a contributing member of society.

Paying for grades wouldn't work for us either. One, we don't give grades in our homeschool. That kind of blew it our right there. I wasn't about to add grade to our lessons either. I wouldn't even know how to do that with some lessons, like nature. Seriously, how do you grade nature journals?

While we knew what we weren't willing to pay for, we did need to come up with something we would indeed pay them to do. You learn how to handle money by having your own. We want them to learn to save and give along with spend. Learning all three are equally important. Just like learning delayed gratification. We don't always get what we want when we want it.

In the end, Michael and I decided to pay them to help us. We assigned monetary values to some of our chores like mowing the grass, doing laundry, or clipping coupons. They have to ask to do the chore or I announce that I need someone to do it. The first kid to answer gets to do it. Then I add it to their total on the white board. They get paid on Wednesdays just like Dad. Another life lesson in that you don't automatically get paid every time you do something.

Logan has taken it to it like a duck to water. He has several things that he wants and is beginning to understand the power of money. We did establish rules for tithing , saving and spending. He does well if there are hard and fast rules. I just need to convince him that he needs to carry his wallet in his pocket. He often leaves it at home.

Madison has not been as enthusiastic as Logan. She has been a better saver than him though. Often deciding that if she has to pay for it then she doesn't need it. This is ok too. She also has to be reminded when we go out to bring her money. Now that they have their own money, we don't pay for things like candy, drinks , or little trinkets when we go out. It has saved us money too.

Weekly Wrap Up: The Field Trip Edition

2011-11-05T22:27:00.000-04:00

Ahhhh, November. Can you hear my sigh of relief?? I got a little over zealous in October scheduling field trips. We literally had 2 field trips every week in October. While it was loads of fun, it was also exhausting to say the least! Let's go on a field trip wrap up, shall we?

Trip #1 Movie theater to see Dolphin Tale

Trip #2 Hydroponic farm

Trip #3 Boktoberfest (plant festival @ Bok Tower Gardens)

Trip #4 Port of Tampa tour ( cancelled due to tropical storm)

Trip #5 Picassoz Cup Art Class ( Family tree tiles)

Madison's version of her family

Logan's yellow face family!

Trip #5 Corn Maze

Trip #6 Munn Park Extravaganza

Trip #7 Hollis Gardens & Lake Mirror Historical Tour

Trip #8 Clearwater Marine Aquarium to see Winter from Dolphin Tale

Logan did a shark dissection

Madison & I

Winter on the white board w/Panama who is 35 yrs old & 500 lbs!

Now can you see why we're so tired!! It was a fun month though! This month we only have Legoland Florida! I can't wait!!!!!

Linked up with Kris over @ Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers! Go check out what everyone else is doing too!

Camp Wrap Up

2011-11-05T11:03:00.079-04:00

This year was Madison's first foray into camp. Unlike Logan , she would not go without me. I also sent Logan solo because I sometimes have a tendency to over compensate for him. It was one of our steps to seeing if independence was possible for him. That's another post entirely. This is about Madison's first attempt at camp.

I knew she would have a great time when she got there. I begrudgingly agreed to be the chaperone for the girls. To be honest, when I first thought of her going to camp, I imagined spending the week with Logan at home. Not in a college dorm taking care of other children getting up entirely too early. Madison made it known fairly quickly that she wasn't going without me. In her defense, she did have to leave for camp on her birthday! After making arrangements for Logan's care, we were off on our camp adventure!

I'm not sure why we had to leave the church at 10 AM. We got to Eckerd College before they were ready for us then had to spend the rest of the afternoon on our own. There was not a whole lot of activities to be done on the first day so it was a tad boring. When we go next year, I will definitely bring something for the kids to do that afternoon. We ended up bringing our stuff into the dorms ,setting up then walking around a bit. I got some great pics and we did see a giant black snake. The boys thought that was super fun.

Finally, dinnertime came and we are like kings! Or queens in our case! I must admit that I am still trying to lose the 10 lbs that I gained at camp. The buffet was to die for and they had an unlimited soda fountain. It was a fat kid's dream. Madison surprised me by eating tacos for every meal that week except breakfast. I didn't even know she liked tacos.

The rest of the week was a blur of activities! There was morning worship and Bible study with One Eyed Sally and Bread Beard. Lots of fun worship songs were sung and we worshipped with abandon.

Off to activities then lunch then off to classes. There was a central meeting spot that the children all descended upon at a certain hour. After attendance was taken , they were off to their class then brought back to THE SPOT to meet up for the next class. The chaperones took this time to run to Wal-mart for supplies if needed or to volunteer in their classes with them. I did a little of both, making runs to Wally world for bottled water and going into the rooms to take pictures as well. If you have never been in Florida at the end of June then you don't know that the average temp. is over 100 with a heat index and lots of humidity. Blech, it was HOT!!!

All three girls picked the same classes so it was easy to round them up and keep track of them. They had lots of fun together. I really lucked out with awesome girls that have a heart for Jesus. I'm not saying that just because one of them is my daughter. I see God using these girls in a mighty way!

Every day ended like this! Yes, we had 2 dorm rooms with 2 beds in each but everyone ended up in the same room. It was ok with me. I would have stayed up all night worrying about the other room anyway.

The week culminated with a final worship rally where we said goodbye to our Bible study leader, Nate. We enjoyed getting to know him along with the children. He was lots and lots of fun!

When we arrived home, the boys were gone for the weekend to the Towery Family Reunion. We decided to go see Cars 2 at the movies to relax for the afternoon. It was the perfect end to a perfect week with my little girl. I will always fondly remember the week we spent together at Centri Kid camp.

Winner of the $25 Wal-Mart Giftcard

2011-11-01T11:38:00.000-04:00

Last week I ran a General Mills Star Wars giveaway! Well, the winner is Commenter #2 via http://www.random.org/!

Congratulations Shawn! Thanks for entering! Check your email. You have 48 hours to contact me before I pick a new winner.

My utmost thanks!

2011-10-31T20:37:00.000-04:00

Thanks for spending the last 31 days reading about Homeschooling with Autism with me. I know I didn't get all 31 days . It was tougher than I thought! I enjoyed it though and I really appreciate all of you reading my blog on a regular basis. I have the best readers!

Cute as a button!

2011-10-31T16:25:00.001-04:00

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Homeschooling with Autism: Day 28 Sounding smart when questioned

2011-10-28T15:39:00.028-04:00

Being eaten by the shark at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Love the face!

I'm just gonna say it. There are going to be people that either disapprove of homeschooling or think you aren't qualified to do it. You could get into many a lengthy debate with them. I don't anymore. Now that I am fairly comfortable in my homeschooling mom role, it doesn't bug me as much. I have learned one thing that has helped out when the children are questioned.

Teach them how to answer when people question what they are learning. I have told Logan that this is the time when he can spout facts until their eyes gloss over. Feel free to tell the person everything he knows about a subject. Works every time for him.

Madison had a little more trouble with it. She's my why do you want to know kid. So, we practiced scenarious. For example, if it's someone at church , she could recite one of the Scriptures that she has memorized. If it's someone at dance ,which is a more likely scenario since she is the only homeschooled kid there, she could talk about an experiment we just did or her favorite activity that week.

We are not trying to act like we are better because we are homeschooling. We are just trying to avert controversy if we can.I certainly have bigger things to worry about and this takes the pressure off quickly. I highly suggest you practice your answer in advance if your child is uncomfortable answering the question. This is what works for our family!

This is Day 28 of my Homeschooling with Autism series. Thanks for reading! Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a $25 Wal-mart gift card! Someone has to win so it might as well be you!

Homeschooling with Autism: Day 27 Making Dad Principal

2011-10-27T21:38:00.001-04:00

I don't know about anyone else that homeschools but we have recently taken the drastic move of accountability here in The Rogers Academy. If you read my blog at all then you have heard me lamenting how our work just never seems to get done. I plan out this fantastic semesters then end up feeling defeated because we never finish them. Ugh!

This past week, we instituted Dad as Principal. I had called an emergency family meeting where I vented my frustration about our inability to finish our work. Before either child had the chance to throw me under the bus, I admitted my own faults as well. Alas , that was a bitter pill to swallow. Showing humility in front of your children is a necessary evil in life.

After listening to the many excuses that spewed out out of my ~~demon~~ children, Dad announced some shocking changes. Well in all honesty, I was not shocked. We had already discussed what the changes would be during our 5 mile run earlier in the day. Shhh, don't tell the children. Mondays at lunch , we will present to Principal Dad last week's plans, completed or not. If not completed, then a reason must be given . Regardless, Principal Dad reserves the right to determine punishment if necessary.

Everyone needs accountability. I'm not sure why I didn't think of this sooner. Everyone has worked so much more efficiently knowing that we have to account for ourselves on Monday. So, tell me. What do you do for accountability in your homeschool?

This is Day 27 of my Homeschooling with Autism series. Thanks so much for reading! Don't forget to jump over here to enter my giveaway for a $25 Wal-mart gift card! Someone has to win so it might as well be you!

Homeschooling with Autism: Day 26 Let me Show you an Example

2011-10-26T15:37:00.037-04:00

Let's jump back in to the obsessions post of a few days ago. It would just so happen that we took a field trip to our local botanical gardens that day. Remember all those books Logan reads at all hours of the day and night? Those books give him lots and lots of facts about all sorts of different things. He could also easily be a docent in a musuem or work in a botanical gardens giving tours as well as working with the plants. This particular gardens has koi fish as well . Fish and plants would be Logan's dream job.

The first part of the tour was all about the gardens and what plants were and did and how to take care of them. They got to taste stevia leaves, learn about berries that make you vomit and look at the koi fish. Logan was extremely attentive staying with the group the entire time asking questions as we went along.

The second part of the tour was Mr. Stacy. He walked us around Lake Mirror talking about the history of Lakeland. All facts but presented so well. Logan could do this job as well. He could certainly spout the facts ( remember Cliff from Cheers? That's Logan). He would have to work on presentation. Drama is not his thing. Part of what made this tour so interesting was the character put into it by Mr. Stacy. Logan could do it but it would be harder for him than say the botanical gardens job.

I hope these examples help you to see that obsessions can be used to your child's advantage. Now when Logan was knee deep in dinosaurs, I couldn't see it. All I wanted him to do was find something else to talk about or play with . Be patient. Keep cultivating your child's ever expanding interests. The dividends will pay off in the end.

This is day 26 in my 31 Days to Homeschooling with Autism series. Thanks for reading! Don't forget to enter the Day 25 giveaway of free breakfast and a $25 Wal-mart card! Someone has to win, right?

Homeschooling with Autism: Day 25 Let me pay for breakfast!

2011-10-25T15:32:00.005-04:00

That is actually not breakfast but strawberry shortcake. She is too cute though!

It's easy as homeschoolers to take a lackadaisical schedule. One of the beauties of homeschooling is that you can adapt your schedule to your families needs. We do this as a family by everyone following Michael's schedule. I often say that sleeping children are easier to keep quiet than awake ones. Since Michael works nights, I purposefully keep the children up late in an effort to get them to sleep late in the morning. This enables Michael some quiet time. Luckily, he doesn't require a great deal of sleep to function unlike some other people in this house who shall remain nameless.

Even though we get up late ( in case you are wondering , we get up at 10 AM), we eat a fairly large lunch around 1:30. This enables us to eat as a family before Michael leaves for work. His schedule is from 3 PM until all the trucks are loaded then his paperwork can get done which usually means about 5 AM , 4 days a week. BUT I do not allow the children to skip breakfast.

Breakfast is an important start to everyone's day. Your body has been fasting all night. It's hungry. Studies have shown over and over again that it's easier to focus and children learn better if they eat breakfast in the morning. This is true for any child, homeschooled or not. Just like you wouldn't dream of sending your child to school without breakfast, you shouldn't try to start your homeschool day without eating breakfast. How about a fun giveaway to entice us?

GIVEAWAY CLOSED!!!!

I was ecstatic to receive an opportunity to review the new cereal boxes from General Mills that make a panorama on the back of Star Wars. Even Madison thought they were cool but she especially loved the part that it came with her favorite cereal, Honey Nut Cheerios. They are in these special boxes to commemorate the release of the Star Wars saga release on blu-ray. It was win - win for everyone as Logan was ecstatic about the Star Wars part. Remember obsessions?

In honor of the release, select General Mills Big G cereals have a limited edition Star Wars good versus evil image on their packaging, which when combined creates a full panoramic poster.

Exclusively at Walmart, look for specially marked boxes of Big G cereals, including Honey Nut Cheerios®, Cinnamon Toast Crunch®, and Lucky Charms®. Collect all three to create a Star Wars panoramic poster showcasing your favorite characters, like Darth VadarTM, Luke SkywalkerTM, Han SoloTM, Princess LeiaTM and more.

Marking the first time ever that the full Saga is available in one complete collection, the 9-disc STAR WARS: THE COMPLETE SAGA will be available on Blu-ray September 16th, courtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

May the force be with you as you check out these Star Wars boxes at your local Walmart for a limited time only!
Find more information about Big G cereals at http://www.wholegrainnation.com/

I have a set to giveaway along with a $25 gift card to Wal-mart! You get breakfast to start your day off right and a gift card to for some Star Wars toys. Yay! Here are the ways to enter!

Tell me what your favorite breakfast choice is in the comments. It will be fun to see what other people are eating for breakfast!
Subscribe to my blog and leave a comment below. Already a subscriber? Leave me a comment telling me that too!
"Like" my page on Facebook then leave me a comment here telling me how much you "like" me. smile

It's that easy! I'll leave the contest open until Sunday evening at 9 PM EST. At that point, I'll pick a winner. Good luck!

"Disclosure: The cereal, gift card, information, and giveaway have been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark."

Click here to see the entire series! Thanks for reading!

Homeschooling with Autism: Day 24 Using Obsessions to Your Advantage

2011-10-24T23:03:00.001-04:00

Logan and his many trains!

Children with autism get some crazy obsessions. Logan has obsessed over dinosaurs, trains, Pokemon, Star Wars and most recently, gardening. In the dinosaur obsession phase, we read books about dinosaurs, used them to help us count our math, and colored pictures about them to practice our fine motor skills. See where I'm going with this? Use the obsession to your advantage. If it gets the child to pay attention to their lessons and learn then by all means use it.

You can keep your curriculum in tact while incorporating the interests. No reason that you can't entice your child to finish his science with the promise of a rousing game of dinosaur attack. If you are learning geography , encourage the child to find out what trains do in that country if that's up his alley. Want to encourage prompt work? Make a small treasure chest with little trinkets that your child will love and let him get in at the end of the lesson. We use one of the drawers in our stand up filing cabinet. At one point, we had two sections, one for finishing daily work and one for bigger prizes as incentive for finishing the entire week. After awhile , we were able to back off the daily and just give prizes for finishing our weekly lessons.

We so want to do this! How cool is that?

Some obsessions can be turned into meaningful career choices. If your child likes to draw then he could be an artist or an animator at a big movie studio. Logan loves gardening. He could spend hours in his garden. He pours over the gardening magazines and seed catalogs so long that they are worn out . Dog eared does not do these poor tattered pages justice. But you know what? People pay big money for personal gardeners. In our area, Disney hires many gardeners and botanists for their parks. Logan could easily make a living in this field. Look at your child's obsessions and make them work in your homeschool. You'll make it much more enjoyable for your child.

Homeschooling with Autism: Day 23 Learn to slow down

2011-10-23T23:02:00.000-04:00

Logan 1999

It is no surprise that children learn better on their own terms. Logan is no exception. What you have to do with children with autism is to allow them time to process what you've asked and respond. That's right. You have to give them time to respond.

Considering that most children with autism have auditory processing delays, giving him time to respond takes lots of patience. I can look at Logan and see when he is processing it and trying to formulate an answer. I can also tell when he clearly didn't understand what I asked or wasn't paying attention. This took lots and lots of practice. It's a standard that I strive to achieve every day but sometimes fall short. Don't believe me? I leave you with a link to this post where I wrote about this exact topic back in January of this year. It even gives an example of my failure. Lucky me!

Slow down and Shut Up

This is Day 23 in a 31 day series on Homeschooling with Autism. Please check out my other posts in the series! Thanks!

Winner of Day 17 Giveaway

2011-10-22T23:19:00.000-04:00

I buried a giveaway in the Day 17 post about service. This morning we picked a winner via Random.org. The lucky winner of the $25 Sam's Club card is Debbie Edwards!!! Congratulations Debbie! You have 48 hours to contact me to claim your prize. No need to fret for everyone else! I have another giveaway this week involving Star Wars and another gift card.

Read all the previous posts in my series , 31 Days of Homeschooling with Autism

Homeschooling with Autism: Day 21 Another Week in the Books

2011-10-21T18:02:00.004-04:00

Another week done and finished. Yay us! What a fun and eventful week we had too! Get a cup of coffee or hot chocolate and snuggle up to read about our myriad of activities. Go ahead. I'll wait for you. Tell your family I said it was ok and they have to wait a few minutes while you read my post. Are you back? Great!

We implemented a new rule in the Rogers Academy this week. Every Monday at lunch, both children will present their completed ( or uncompleted as is usually the case these days, Ugh!) to the principal aka Dad. If they are indeed uncompleted then they they will have to state their case as to why and accept whatever punishment Principal Dad doles out. This will relieve pressure off of me on always being the bad guy kinda sorta. Remember the together lessons? I will report to Principal Dad every Monday as well. I am praying that this is the accountability our homeschool is missing.

This week was homeschool art class at Picassoz Cup. They are monthly classes that change mediums every month. Madison loves them. Logan is warming up to them. This month, they did thumbprint family tiles. The one above is Madison's interpretation of her family. She made Michael super big because we affectionately call him Beast on occassion. That and it made me look extra skinny. That's my girl. Here's Logan's version.

We had a fantastic field trip planned to the Port of Tampa on Tuesday. Unfortunately, it got cancelled when the tropical storm came inland. We didn't get very much rain as most of it stayed south of us. We did manage to spend the day in our pajamas though. Fun!

Logan also managed to finish his quilt top this week! He was very proud of it. Let's just say that Logan has become very familiar with the use of a seam ripper. Patience is a virtue . Logan is getting a ton of practice at it. Madison would have finished hers as well but there weren't enough machines available.

Friday was split into 2 sections. The morning was spent at the new corn maze in town. While it was kinda sad for a corn maze ( as in you could see over the top of the corn), it was a super fun field trip. We played with our homeschool friends all morning on the hay ride , duck races, and a giant inflatable bouncy pillow. Clearly, the corn cannon was Logan's favorite part even though it was loud. He did get a little out of sorts with all the noises and smells. I let him go hang out in the shade and play on his phone to chill out for awhile.

That evening, we had our favorite soon to be missionary family over for coffee and dessert. This is a findraising tool for them to raise support for their missionary work. I invited people over for coffee and dessert while they presented a Powerpoint on their future work. I love this family and what they are doing. I'm not sure that I could sell everything I own and move to the Dominican Republic with no internet and extreme poverty. God will most surely bless their obedience. We are so blessed to know them. We will most definetly cram as much time in with them before they leave in February. Since you have coffee anyway, hop on over to http://www.stephenandvanderly.org/ and check them out. Go ahead, I was done anyway.

This is Day 21 in my series , Homeschooling with Autism. We are almost done so be sure to check out the other posts. Thanks for reading!

Homeschooling with Autism: Day 19 Finding a Good Support Group

2011-10-19T22:45:00.001-04:00

Our fun group ar Gatorland!

A crucial part of homeschooling is to find a good support group or co op. It's important to find other homeschooling families in which to socialize with and find support. This is the place where your children will find friends that are similar to them. For some children, like mine, they are usually odd man out when asked about school. There are several homeschooling families in our church but we are most definitely the only ones homeschooling on both side of our family. A support group will help to show them that there are other homeschooled kids just like them.

I happened to pick a Christian homeschooling group with a number of large families. Let me explain why that works out really well if you have a child with autism. Most large families bring all the children to field trips and events, young and old. There are therefore a plethora of ages to choose from at any event. This translates into Logan can play with whatever age child that he is comfortable with usually depending on the event. Most moms of large families are very understanding of this need. This makes it easier on Logan and me.

The support you get from other homeschooling moms can not be dismissed either. I remember when Madison was having a terrible time learning to read. She clearly wasn't get it in 100 Easy Lessons, no matter how hard I tried to help her. One wise mom suggested we start over and do it again. I was aghast at her suggestion until she gently pointed out that the beauty of homeschooling was going at the child's pace. That advice changed our homeschool forever.

This is Day 19 of my series, Homeschooling with Autism. Thanks for reading my series! Check out Day 17 for a chance to enter my giveaway for a $25 gift card to Sam's Club. Someone has to win so it might as well be you!

Homeschooling with Autism- Day 18 Getting Help When Necessary

2011-10-18T16:57:00.002-04:00

When we first took Logan out of public school, we also started RDI. Not long after that, we also were blessed to have Leslie move in with us. It was a natural assumption that she would go with us to the parent training. She became and RDI extender for us. Basically, she did therapy with Logan when we were unavailable or needed to do something with Madison.

In a perfect world, everyone would have a helper at home. It worked out for us that Leslie lived with us. She was always great with Logan. If you know her, you absolutely must ask her about taking Logan out of the children’s museum screaming. The story is hilarious!

Leslie would work with Logan so I could work with Madison, or do housework , or just breathe. Sometimes, I just needed to step away from Logan . There is nothing wrong with that. His needs at times are extensive.. He talks non stop at times. Sometimes I need quiet time to recoup and come back focused.

Long story short, try to find someone to help you out even if it’s only short periods of time. A child with autism needs a ton of on going care. Even a high functioning one like Logan. It doesn’t have to be someone you pay. The only caveat need be that you trust them with your child and that they can take care of them. Perhaps you could trade services or goods or children. Just kidding!

This is Day 18 in a series called Homeschooling with Autism. To enter the the giveaway for a $25 Sam's Card go to Day 17 for details.